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“No he’s not, you idiot!” Oles turned in his seat, his face covered in worry and stress “He’s losing a lot of blood!”

“Shut up!” Jacob screa the pistol around with one hand Rick winced at the action, nearly ducking down, but stood firm

“Jacob, just tellon I can help you, I promise”

“No you can’t Only the decryption codes will help ht now”

“The codes?” Rick’s eyes narrowed and confusion clouded his expression He swiveled his head to look over at Oles and Dr Evans “Can one of you three please tellon down here? There’s a pair of dead Spetsnaz upstairs, Jane’s dead too and it looks like Dr Evans is going to bleed out!”

“Jane is… dead?” Jacob’s eyes widened and his weapon-laden arhtly Rick nearlymuscles and pulled the weapon back up His hands were still shaking, even er in the process Even though Rick’s ears were still ringing froo, the shot still sounded deafeningly loud in the confines of the s pain pass through his chest

Instead, there was a scream froround, clutching his arm in pain “Ublyudok! Why?!”

Rick swiveled his head back around to see Jacob’s ar his face as he realized that he had inadvertently shot his friend Taking advantage of the distraction, Rick wasted nowith hiht bothoff into the darkness

Chapter 2

Outside Ellisville, VA

“Tina!” The screaony and desperation, with an unspoken plea for the word to soe what had already transpired The gunshots from Mark and Jason’s rifles were distant thu Tina’s body into her ar the older woman back into the community center

Tina had been shot for no more than a few seconds, but her form already seemed incredibly small and frail to Dianne as she lay Tina down on a pallet inside the door Tina’s groans and cries of pain continued even as Dianne began tearing at her shirt, pulling it off and away to get a clear picture of where the shot had landed

“You’ll be okay, Tina! I promise!” She turned to Sarah, who had followed her inside “We need bandages and co!”

“I’ll check their supplies” Sarah fought the panic in her voice as she stood and ran to a pile of boxes and duffle bags stacked on a wall inside the center

“Tina, stay with me, okay?” Dianne finally cleared away Tina’s jacket and shirt, revealing a e wound in the upper right quadrant of her chest “Sweet mercy,” Dianne whispered, her hands frozen over the wound as her eyes danced back and forth

“It’s bad” Tina whispered through the pain, groaning out the words “Isn’t it?”

“Don’t talk, okay? Just stay awake”

“Gauze, and lots of it!” Sarah fell to her knees, duauze rolls onto the ground

“Lung” Tina gasped, her eyes rolling back froet… air out…cavity…”

“What’s she talking about?” Sarah furiously unwrapped the gauze and passed it to Dianne, who used it to clean the blood fro layers of it down in an attempt to stop the flow of blood

“No!” Tina gasped again, putting her hand on Dianne’s ar into Dianne’s flesh “Seal it Quickly Air getting in” Dianne glanced down to Tina’s chest, seeing bubbles in the blood as Tina gasped again, and felt a wave of recognition wash over her Her first responder class had been so long ago, but one of the few things that had stuck in her brain was bubbles in the blood—a sure sign of a sucking chest wound

“I need tape!” Dianne looked at Sarah